PVL

Coach has great hopes for Lady Bombers despite loss

ABS-CBN Sports on Sep 03, 2017 04:14 PM

Coach Mia Tioseco (sixth from right, back row) and the Jose Rizal University Lady Bombers are appearing in their first ever V League except for Shola Alvarez (standing fourth from right), who had the golden opportunity of playing for two of Pocari Sweat’s three title runs in the Sports Vision-organized tournaments in 2015 and 2016.

“Pigil pa (they were still holding back),” said JRU coach Mia Tioseco of the Lady Bombers in this, their maiden appearance in a Sports Vision-organized tournament. They were hampered by first-time jitters and there was that, she added.

The Lady Bombers absorbed a straight-sets whacking from the Jia Morado-less Ateneo Lady Blue Eagles Saturday, opening day of the Premier Volleyball League Collegiate Conference.

Tioseco, a former key player of the University of the Philippines Lady Maroons and once a member of the national Youth squad, averred that her team would find their range as the final tournament of the PVL for this year progresses.

“This is their first game in their first ever V League and against Ateneo yet; I really didn’t expect them to come out with all guns blazing. They could dish out more,” she said. “Hopefully, our exposure in the PVL would land us a higher finish in the next NCAA volleyball season.”

Shola Alvarez, the only one on the team able to play (for Pocari Sweat) for two seasons in the V League, said she was glad that her mother team has been given the chance to play in the PVL.

“I’m super happy that my school teammates are now also experiencing the excitement and challenge of clashing with tough collegiate squads in a big-time tournament such as the PVL. My own experience no doubt will give me more confidence to go through my final year in the NCAA.”

Alvarez is coming off a lower back injury which struck her down while playing for the Pocari Sweat Lady Warriors midway in the V-League Reinforced Conference last year.